Skaters take care of tricky business at Granite City Grind

The inaugural event brought St. Cloud skateboarders together for friendly competition
St. Cloud Times

It wasn't the first time a game of S-K-A-T-E has broken out at the St. Cloud Skate Plaza, but there was a new wrinkle at the inaugural Granite City Grind on Friday.

The event — which featured 48 contestants in the skating version of basketball's H-O-R-S-E — was hosted by KVSC-FM, St. Cloud State University's student-run radio station. It was a sign that the skate community and the rest of the community are starting to come together,

according to the event's participants and organizers.

"It's really cool to see that we're actually accepted in our community and that people are supportive of it," said James Weaver, 18. "It's a changed from what it used to be."

That little seed

The idea came about on a whim but quickly turned into much more, KVSC Program Director Trevor Klopp said.

"The idea came from the station manager, Jo McMullen. She drove by the skate plaza and said, 'There's a lot of people there. Are there always that many people there? ... We should go there and play some music for them or something,' and kind of just left me that little seed to do something with," Klopp said.

So Klopp and KVSC reached out to Mike Thienes of Youth Shelter Supply to put something together.

"They've seen our events and kind of wanted to do something similar," Thienes said.

Klopp said it was Youth Shelter's success with hosting events and its long-standing connection to the community that made its involvement with the event important.

"We'd hoped for 50 (participants). I know the Youth Shelter has pulled around 100 before, we hoped that maybe partnering with them would get the word out."

Competition was fierce but friendly, and it was a perfect day to skate, said Jesse Johnson, 18, of St. Cloud. "It's a lot of people having fun and a lot of crazy tricks," he said between skate sessions.

Common ground

Klopp shared the participants' enthusiasm. For him, it was exciting to see people finding common ground.

"This our crowd, these are our people. ... This is a group of the community that doesn't normally get much attention or events put on, so it's great to be able to cater to them," Klopp said.